The responsibilities of a Navy hull maintenance technician are installing, maintaining, and repairing valves, piping, plumbing systems, as well as marine sanitation systems and repair decks, structures, and hulls, examine welds, and fabrication of metal parts.

Connell recently earned the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal award while the USS Germantown was in dry dock.

Connell has family members who have previously served in the military and is honored to carry on the family tradition.

With more than 50 percent of the world's shipping tonnage and a third of the world's crude oil passing through this region. The United States has maintained protection of these interests in this part of the world. The Navy's presence in Sasebo is part of that long-standing commitment.

Commissioned in 1986, the USS Germantown is the second Navy ship named after the Revolutionary War Battle of Germantown. With a crew of more than 900 sailors and Marines, Germantown is 609 feet long and weighs approximately 16,000 tons. Designed specifically to operate landing craft air cushion small craft vessels, Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships have the largest capacity for these landing craft out of any U.S. Navy amphibious ship.

As a member of one of the U.S. Navy’s most relied-upon assets, Connell and other sailors know they are part of a legacy that will last beyond their lifetimes providing the Navy the nation needs.

Seventh Fleet, which is celebrating its 75th year in 2018, spans more than 124 million square kilometers, stretching from the International Date Line to the India/Pakistan border; and from the Kuril Islands in the North to the Antarctic in the South. Seventh Fleet's area of operation encompasses 36 maritime countries and 50 percent of the world’s population with between 50-70 U.S. ships and submarines, 140 aircraft, and approximately 20,000 sailors in the 7th Fleet.